The fifteen-year libertarian camping event in New Hampshire, Porcupine Freedom Festival aka Porcfest has long been renown as a cryptocurrency hotspot. It’s the place where Bitcoin’s early successful investors like Roger Ver, Erik Voorhees,and Charlie Shrem have all come to hang out with the New Hampshire libertarian activists and hundreds of visitors, all considering a move to the Shire for more freedom. One year, Roger Ver (aka “Bitcoin Jesus”) famously gave away dozens of Casascius “physical bitcoins”, which became a collectors item and are now worth significantly more than a bitcoin!

Porcfest, like all growing groups of people eventually had a schism, or “fork” as its called in the cryptocurrency world. Out of that, Forkfest was born in 2017 (under different names). While both are libertarian camping festivals held at Roger’s Campground, Forkfest is a decentralized event, meaning that each attendee decides what to do or create for others to do while at the festival. There are no organizers and no board of directors. Given the name of the event and those planning to attend, it will likely be a very cryptocurrency friendly event as Porcfest is. Last year for instance, crypto point-of-sale provider Anypay‘s founders came and helped throw a rave.

The Olde Bostonian Tavern and Grill

This year, I’m excited to announce that cryptocurrency acceptance has now migrated off the campground and will now be year-round in Lancaster, NH thanks to the new restaurant just down the street from the campground: The Olde Bostonian Tavern and Grill located in the Cabot Inn. The restaurant was created by Rogers Campground’s longtime manager, Laura Hardiman. She was instantly interested in taking cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and DASH due to her exposure to the various libertarian campers she’s met over the years. As of this week, she’s up and running and accepting multiple cryptos including BTC, BCH, ZCH, and DASH with the slick, easy-to-use, NH-based Anypay POS. If you’re planning to attend Forkfest and/or Porcfest, make sure you plan a dinner at The Old Bostonian at 200 Portland St and bring your cryptocurrency wallet. I recommend you pay with DASH and then watch your wallet to see what happens after the payment is sent.

Forkfest 2018 will be held this year from June 14th through 18th and Porcfest is immediately afterwards from the 19th through the 24th. That’s eleven days to give you a taste of what it’s like living around more liberty people than you could possibly know. You already know about the exciting NH Freedom Migration that’s been happening here – this is your chance to really experience it.

Unofficial Forkfest Logo

In other Forkfest news, more self-organizing is happening with two competing calendars springing up. One on Google Calendar, the other on Liberty.menu. There are discussion threads on the unofficial Forkfest forum about the calendars as well as food vendors announcing they plan to attend! Plus, according to one post on the forum, the lon

As we did in 2017, Keene cryptocurrency fans got together yesterday, May 22nd, to celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day. What is Bitcoin Pizza Day? On May 22nd of 2010, a computer programmer made the first recorded real-life bitcoin purchase – two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin. Today, that 10,000 BTC is worth over $80 Million dollars. A year ago, it was worth $25 Million.

We gathered at Little Zoe’s Take and Bake and ordered several pizzas. However instead of paying with BTC, as we did last year, this time we paid with DASH. Why DASH? Last year during the dramatic spike in fees on the Bitcoin Core network, several local businesses began accepting DASH as an alternative to BTC, to give their customers a choice.

In order to spend cryptocurrency, it’s the buyer who pays the network fee for processing the transaction (this is the opposite of the credit card system, where the merchant takes the fee out of their profit). Given that today fees to send BTC are typically about $0.40 and to send DASH about $0.01, it’s a no-brainer. No one would choose to spend BTC when a better option is available.

That better option is DASH, aka “Digital Cash”, a cryptocurrency that confirms four times faster than BTC and has really taken off at retail locations across southern New Hampshire. It proliferated because NH-based crypto point-of-sale merchant processor Anypay introduced DASH first with its release of their POS software in 2017. In fact, in an interview with Albert, the operator of DiscoverDash.com, a website that shows the physical locations of DASH-accepting businesses across the world, he told me that Keene is number three in the world for real-life DASH acceptance, behind Caracas, Venezuela at number one and Portsmouth, NH at number two!

Well well well. The 8th Anniversary of the first-ever cryptocurrency purchase (10,000 Bitcoins for 2 Papa John’s pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida), and digital cash enthusiasts everywhere are celebrating by gathering to eat pizza and and spread their favorite money. Portsmouth, New Hampshire (aka “Bitcoin Village“) was no exception!

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Hometown favorite restaurant STREET’Za made it happen for us. They have been taking Bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies since they opened in 2017. Their sister restaurant STREET led the way for Portsmouth and the entire Seacoast region by being the first in town to accept the new currency. Their adventurism has paid off big-time, regularly drawing in new business from cryptocurrency lovers from out of town and even out of state.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Even though the Boston Bitcoin Cash Meetup group just had an event there Saturday, a guy in Portland reached out to me and said the Portsmouth Bitcoin Network should have a meetup of its own on the official Bitcoin Pizza Day (May 22). We did, and it was excellent.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Only 4 people RSVP’d to the event, but you never can tell with these things. Eleven people showed up! One attendee works for Coinbase in New York City. He received some playful ribbing. Another has a business setting up merchants to take cryptocurrency. A few asked for his card. One was finance professor at a local university researching ICOs. He asked about classes at the Blockchain Institute of Technology. Three were students home for the summer. They installed their first hot wallets on their phones and loaded them with some coins. Attendee ages ranged from 16 to 55, with the average probably around 30. The Boston Bitcoin Meetup the previous Saturday drew in 4 people total, one from Haverhill and one from Portland.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

The best part? Everyone used cryptocurrency to pay. Without exception. Some friendly nudging was offered when all but 2 attendees paid with Dash instead of Bitcoin. Rightly, these people were ridiculed. After all, we were there for Bitcoin Pizza Day. But then again, Dash has benefits over Bitcoin that make it more attractive for customers. First, transaction fees are lower. Much lower. Like 20 times lower. Those who paid with Bitcoin paid an extra twenty cents in fees on top of their payment compared with Dash’s fee of less than one cent.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Not really a big deal, but then get this: Dash-Back. Because STREET’Za accepts their crypto using the Anypay digital cash register, their customers receive an instant rebate when they pay with Dash. In my case, I paid $12.50 for some chicken wings and received a dollar of Dash right back into my wallet. Not bad. All things being equal, when faced with the choice between two cryptocurrencies, using Dash makes a lot of sense if the merchant is using Anypay. Why not use the coin that pays you to use it instead of the one that you have to pay extra to use?

Here are some shots of folks enjoying and paying for their meals.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Many of the attendees asked if they could pay the server’s tip with their crypto. The manager said yes and took the tips on his phone with the promise to pass them along to our server after setting her up with her own wallets, or paying her out in cash (whatever her preference). In the past, this has been a great way to introduce new people to crypto. They know it has real value because they can see it being used to buy things where they work.

Bitcoin Pizza Day 2018 at STREET’Za in Portsmouth

So…How was Bitcoin Pizza Day in your town? If it was uninspiring, consider moving to New Hampshire, the Crypto Capital of the World!

“Free Talk Live” Moves up to #27 on the TALKERS “Heavy Hundred” for 2018!

Keene, New Hampshire-based nationally syndicated talk radio show Free Talk Live has done it again! We’ve moved up higher on the list of the “Heavy Hundred” most important talk shows from #29 in 2017 to #27 on the 2018 rankings. Our first appearance on the list was in 2009, and we’ve been moving up year after year.

Originally founded in 2002, and syndicated in 2004, Free Talk Live is the only nationally syndicated radio show on the list that is delivering a principled, voluntaryist, pro-peace, pro-cryptocurrency message every night. We also hit another record recently, crossing over 185 radio affiliates on AM and FM from coast-to-coast.

It’s an honor to have TALKERS Magazine recognize what we’re doing here. Thank you to publisher Michael Harrison and the rest of the TALKERS crew for including us again.

Of course, we never could have done it without the direct support of our listeners via the Free Talk Live AMP program, where people who support what we do for $5 per month. Thank you for listening and for your support!

Vin in Nevada for a photoshoot for Gigolos on Showtime. He’s gonna need more than that hoodie now in NH!

When I spoke at Anarchapulco in 2017 about why liberty-loving people should move to New Hampshire, one of the people in the audience was Vin Armani. At the time, Vin had recently wrapped production of six seasons of the Showtime reality-TV series, “Gigolos” and had launched a live-streamed voluntaryist internet video talk show.

I met Vin after my speech and he was very interested in what was happening here in New Hampshire and the ongoing NH Freedom Migration. I interviewed him from Anarchapulco on my radio show, Free Talk Live and he later was kind enough to invite me on his video show, the Vin Armani Show, which at the time he was producing in his home of Las Vegas, Nevada. Back then, just one year ago, he was very interested in possibly moving to the Shire but didn’t have any immediate plans on the horizon.

Now, the gigolo-turned-television star-turned voluntaryist talk show host and now published author has made the move to New Hampshire!

When I asked him to comment on what pushed him over the edge to deciding to move over 2,700 miles for more freedom, he said, “Your talk at Anarchapulco 2017 first sparked my interest. I ended up meeting [then Free State Project president] Matt Philips the next day and he invited me to speak at PorcFest. That got me intrigued. Then I was invited to speak at FreeCoast Fest and Liberty Forum. With my involvement in crypto and the ability to really ‘live it’, along with people I liked asking me to make the move. I just decided to go for it. I’m glad I did.”

Here’s the first episode of Vin’s show that he’s released since making the move where he and his co-host cover moving to NH, cryptocurrency, psychedelics, and liberty as a spiritual evolution. Great show! Welcome home, Vin.

P.S. You’ll be hearing more from Vin this week as he’ll be guest co-hosting Free Talk Live with me and Mark Edge this Tuesday evening from 7-10pm Eastern. You can listen live at Free Talk Live’s site, or watch our video feed via the LRN.FM Twitch.

Have you dreamed of making history? Of course, we all have. And now we have a chance to be a part of New Hampshire's day of giving - an opportunity to unite our community around causes in which we truly believe and help nonprofit organizations connect to the larger community.

We need your help! Please join our campaign and help us reach of our goal of $2,500 and 100 donors! That is just $25.00 per person. We need you to tell your friends and family members about the important work we do and ask them to join us in helping to make a difference. With your help we can even surpass our goal. CLICK THE PHOTO

Get ready to give! On June 6, starting at 12:00AM midnight, visit https://www.nhgives.org/organizations/citizens-for-criminal-justice-reform and make a donation to us. You will have 24 hours to make your donation, and all giving will end at 11:59pm on June 6, 2018.

A few weeks ago in Keene there was a standoff in West Keene to which dozens of cops and state police responded. They brought out the BEARCAT, MRAP, a bomb robot, all kinds of cruisers and trucks, and apparently every state cop from all over – in full camouflage, plus Keene police and Cheshire Sheriffs.

What was this tremendous militarized response regarding (at who knows what taxpayer cost)? A man who’d allegedly brandished and fired a weapon, according to the Keene Sentinel. That’s it.

Luckily independent journalist Vincent Freeman of Shire Free Media was on-the-scene and captured video of the militarized police state insanity. Overreaction? You decide.

To their credit, the cops didn’t hurt the man in the home this time, but they didn’t need to respond like this. This is a scary level of police militarization and very dangerous to liberty.

Think this was the first time something like this has happened in Keene? Think again. In 2012 police had a similarly ridiculous response to an even less-threatening domestic incident in West Keene where a man stormed off into the woods while armed. Oh and don’t forget the lockdown of part of Downtown prior to that in 2010 over an abandoned backpack full of beer. More recently, who could forget the ridiculous response to the Pumpkinfest Riots the police created in the first place by raiding peaceful day parties.

I’m excited to announce that decentralized blockchain-based media protocol called LBRY.io is now hosting the over 900 videos from the Free Keene YouTube channel!
Yes, that’s more than a decade’s worth of video! Thanks to LBRY, we’re no longer subject to YouTube removing our videos, since they’ll be ingested into the censorship-free LBRY system as well.

Based in New Hampshire, LBRY has contributors from around the globe and has welcomed Free Keene, even sending an email announcement to their followers letting them know about the Free Keene LBRY channel (lbry://@FreeKeene – it’s case sensitive). Before you click on that, you’ll need to install the LBRY app (available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS).

While LBRY does allow its content creators to monetize their videos via their cryptocurrency the “LBRY credit (LBC)“, Free Keene’s videos are free to download and watch and you don’t have to watch ads! In fact, every video you download with LBRY, you also host (like file-sharing networks), so you’re contributing to the LBRY just by watching. It’s a pretty cool system and I’m really pleased that Free Keene is in early as a featured content provider.

I look forward to the day when decentralized media storage and service is helping protect more content globally from corporate and government censorship. Please check out LBRY.io, download and run their app, and please subscribe to the @FreeKeene channel for the latest, censorship-free NH-liberty activist video content!

Last year, state representatives Caleb Dyer, Joseph Stallcop, and Brandon Phinney made history by flipping from Republicans and Democrat to the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire.

The three of them outnumber the total number of Libertarian Party state reps in all the other 49 states combined.

At this year’s LPNH convention in Concord both Reps Dyer and Phinney spoke to the attendees about their decision to flip to the Libertarian Party of NH and what it’s meant to them. (Rep. Stallcop wasn’t able to make it.) Phinney even highlights some of their legislative victories. Here are both videos. First, Caleb Dyer’s speech:

Lily Tang Williams tells her story of growing up in and eventually leaving China to seek individual freedom, which ultimately led her to Colorado, the Libertarian Party and now to her new home in New Hampshire! This was recorded at the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire‘s 2018 Convention last weekend. Full video from the convention business session will be available on the Free Keene YouTube.

Here’s the final video from the series of videos from this year’s 4/20 Rally in Concord, NH at the state house steps where a lone state trooper walks up and attempts to intimidate the peaceful cannabis users into leaving a place where they have a right to be by bellowing, “If you’re smoking marijuana here you need to leave… move out now!”

A few inexperienced attendees begin to make an exit but most of the crowd stays in defiance. After being greeted by state representatives who were attending the event including Dan Hynes, the lone trooper tries again with a much more timid, “If you’re smoking marijuana, please move off the property.”

No one leaves. While he could have written tickets for anyone smoking the now-slightly-decriminalized cannabis, he instead exits the scene, never to return.

For those keeping track, this is the first time in nearly a decade of 4/20 rallies at the state house steps where any such intimidation was tried. At previous rallies, all participants were risking misdemeanor possession charges, yet no one was ever arrested. This year was the first where decrim for under 3/4 oz has been in effect.

Boy did the gun control advocates make a mistake! Since 2010, liberty activists and cannabis users have gathered every year on April 20th at 4:20pm to take part in mass cannabis civil disobedience at the state house steps. Of course, given that the state house is public property, you never know who else might show up and this year the gun grabbers held a rally very nearby the 4/20. Theirs was right out by the street while the 4/20 was up by the state house steps.

As Shire Liberty Media blogger Carla Gericke points out in her blog covering both events, the contrast between the two events was stark – one group wanting to just be left alone (the cannabis users) and the other wanting to be controlled and to control others (the anti-gunners).

After blazing up some primo herb, guns-and-weed-loving libertarians targeted the authoritarian gun controllers for a little trolling. Some came prepared, open carrying guns or armed with pro-freedom, pro-gun signs like “Scared of Guns in NH? Move to: Massachusetts ‘the Nanny State'”. The reaction of the freedom-hating gun-grabbers was hilarious. They made a desperate effort to try to cover up the libertarians’ signs with their own, which made for some hilarious video, captured by Vincent Freeman at Shire Free Media on YouTube:

What? Where? The Pine Tree Riot? One of the first acts of rebellion by the American colonists? Yeah, you know Weare. The third annual Pine Tree Riot Celebration, Weare, NH, 4/26/2018...

Two Hundred and Forty Six years ago, a group of loggers from the small town of Weare, New Hampshire took the initial organized action against British tryanny in the eventual war for America's independence. This small act of resistance created a chain reaction across New England and the other colonies powered by the principles of freedom and liberty.

The Pine Tree Riot, as it came to be known, cemented New Hampshire as a place where the seeds of free and open societies grow strong. New Hampshire has served as a model of freedom to the rest of the nation ever since, and continues to lead the way. The Granite State consistently ranks among the most free states in America, and the recent years of tax reductions for employers has helped set the stage for the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the federal level.

AFP-NH invites you to join us to celebrate this important event in American history and to reflect upon the sacrifice those before us made in the fight for liberty. We will be discussing the recent efforts at the state and federal level to expand economic freedom as a reminder of the fight that continues to this day.

The speeches from the Concord 4/20 just keep coming! This time it’s two videos featuring two of the New Hampshire state representatives who are actual Libertarian Party of NH members, Caleb Dyer of Pelham and Joseph Stallcop of Keene. Both flipped to Libertarian after being elected as Republican and Democrat in 2017, respectively. (Here are articles about Caleb and Joseph’s historic party changes.)

First up, Caleb Dyer’s speeches from both 2018 and 2017‘s 4/20s at the state house steps in Concord:

Joseph Stallcop couldn’t make it this year, but here’s his off-the-cuff speech from 2017 that had not yet been released:

New Hampshire has more Libertarian Party state reps (three) than all other states combined (zero)! Oh, and in case you missed it, here’s footage from 2017’s event, including the reps enjoying the celebration:

Miscellaneous

We publish links to the sites listed above in the hopes that they will be useful. The appearance of any particular site in this list does not imply that we endorse everything that the particular site advocates.